By the time Roy Tasco Davis
took over the school in 1937, it was foundering. Enrollment had dropped to 30 students because
of the hardships of the Depression. He recognized that the age had passed of
the girl's finishing school whose primary focus was the social training of the
rich elite. The school at Forest Glen could provide the most value if it
taught valuable skills that enhanced employability. Davis put a new emphasis
on academics and practical skill training. To emphasize this change in orientation, he
changed the name of the school from National Park Seminary to National Park College.

Davis had only five years to attempt the transition, from the
end of the Depression until the U.S. entered World War II. A general of the Army wanted the
property as a peaceful place for the recovery of returning wounded soldiers,
so the Army invoked the War Powers Act and condemned the property, paying
Davis $890,000 for the land and buildings, and some of the furnishings.